The Vital Force Archive

Karin Yacullo recounts signing up for T'ai Chi Chih because it was something new, then repeating the beginner class as she came to see it as a moving meditation worth working at.

Nelson Weaver, a retired Air Force and corporate Type A personality, describes taking stock at 62, signing up for Donna McElhose's beginning class, and celebrating a 149 Day Gong.

Carmen Brocklehurst recalls Justin Stone visiting a Tuesday morning teacher practice and saying he saw softness in the wrists but not looseness, advising the attitude of someone with nothing left to lose.

Benita Goldstein asked her new class of retired teachers in Brooklyn Heights what they felt after practice, and heard that sciatica pain had vanished and a hard school day had lifted.

Jan Block thanks the 2009 Nebraska teacher conference for deepening her teaching of "why" as well as "how," describes adding intermediate and advanced classes, and recounts practicing TCC after airport security pat-downs.

Larry Bloom compares an unwarmed mind to a stiff muscle, describing how his morning T'ai Chi Chih practice loosens rigid thinking, slows a racing mind, and makes tedious tasks pleasant; Pyramid Poems follow.

An anonymous student, weak and dizzy after drinking colonoscopy prep and close to calling 911, practised half a form, finished getting ready, completed it, and felt clear and energized.

April Leffler had students in her first university T'ai Chi Chih course keep weekly journals, and quotes their entries on reduced stress, chi flow, easier asthma and sharing movements with family at Thanksgiving.

MaryAnn Moran, newly accredited, names the pressure and worry of a fast-paced life, the peace TCC gave her, and an aging population's need to stay active as her reasons for teaching.

David Stone credits a morning practice with getting him through a painful couples counseling session where he disclosed troubling secrets, and thanks his teacher Steve Marsh for support after Iraq and entering a recovery program.

Larry Bloom, a former public company executive and student of one year, argues that TCC can counter corporate toxicity, listing benefits like clearer thinking and better communication while honoring Justin's warning against commercializing the practice.

Cathy Williams names impatience as an ego problem, describing the road rage incident that pushed her to swap hard rock for classical music on the drive home and to start each day with T'ai Chi Chih.

Janet Forlow, a ballet dancer who teaches yoga and ballet to seniors, describes T'ai Chi Chih as a body meditation that relieves stress, and uses the weight shift with young adults with disabilities.

Nancy Jo Bleier stands up to practice when her mind chatters, then asks what clarity means in class: short sentences, a full weight shift, daily practice, and a student's note on stress relief.

David Sakry retells a Tao Te Ching story about a monk who paints a symbol on a dream spider's abdomen, then lists four traits of indecision and how TCC practice restores clarity.

Responding to Justin Stone's November 2008 article on impatience, Larry Bloom traces how he stopped seeing traffic jams and long lines as the cause of his irritation, and found a yin and yang to impatience.

Dale Buchanan recounts running a TCC studio in Great Falls, Virginia, leaving teaching for health club management, then losing his job in Boca Raton and rebuilding classes through a website and Facebook.

Tina A. Poslusny wanted to learn T'ai Chi after seeing a sunrise group in the Luxembourg Gardens, then found April Leffler's class was a moving meditation, Six Healing Sounds and all.

Kathi Allen, a weary commuter into New York City, describes finding T'ai Chi Chih through Sr. Mary Reynolds and how the gentle rhythms, quiet class and flowing energy calmed her.

Joyce Manning, a student of Dorene Krause, gave up trying to fit a full practice into every busy morning and learned to split it into halves completed later the same day.

Justin Stone names impatience as an ego problem that peaks in city traffic, contrasting twitching drivers at red lights with his friend Sri Dadubhai, who meditates by staring into the distance.

Lynne Roberts teaches Daughter in the Valley alongside Daughter on the Mountaintop as one whole, describes the peace and freedom from stress they bring, and offers an "M" memory trick for students.

Harvey Barry Jacobs, a physician serving a wrongful life sentence, recounts finding Judy Tretheway's T'ai Chi Chih class in the Folsom chapel and teaching healthy living to 600 inmates.

Betty J. Roberson credits daily practice with easing stress and improving her sleep after a sedentary life of caregiving, while Maybelle Filler recounts a snowy Saturday outdoor session in Sitka and her wordless first classes.

Paula Rivers describes taking Sharon Sirkis's ten-week class at Tai Sophia Institute, using the movements to calm a headache after witnessing a highway accident, and practising morning and evening for sleep and patience; Larry Bloom likens Rocking Motion to a rower's effortless swing.

David Wasserstrom finds TCC more accessible than meditation in a busy life, while Laurenda Messer stops toppling over when she crouches and Margie Cala eases twenty years of chronic fatigue.

Hope Hadley's blinding headache drained away when she practiced in her chiropractor's waiting room, and Myra Goldberg found her fibromyalgia pain gone after starting classes in 2003.

Lois Broome connects faithful T'ai Chi Chih practice to the Serenity Prayer as a way back to inner and outer balance, with a companion note from Ginny Morgan on a husband's move to Kansas City, a lost golden retriever and a new puppy.

Rita Otis describes her weekly hour-long class at JOURNEYS, an adolescent drug and alcohol recovery program, where a reprinted newsletter article quotes an 18-year-old client on learning to relax.

Rosalind Braga's article for Delta Kappa Gamma's international journal The Bulletin, recounting how a stress reduction flyer led her to TCC and to teaching seniors aged 60 to 90.